Daily Headlines: March 31, 2016

* Brazil: Police believe that a 16-year-old girl in Rio de Janeiro has been the victim of a gang rape but worry that rape kit tests may have been done days too late.

* Guatemala: Anabela Morfin has been named as Guatemala’s new attorney general after her predecessor resigned and will leave the country in response to death threats.

* Venezuela: LATAM Airlines and Lufthansa have become the latest air carriers to suspend service in Venezuela due to nonpayment of debts and amid great economic uncertainty.

* Chile: A “red tide” outbreak of algae that has paralyzed the Chilean fishing industry is blamed for a dive in manufacturing production last April.

YouTube Source – France 24 English
 
Online Sources – CBS News, ABC News, euronews, Reuters

Daily Headlines: June 17, 2014

* Venezuela: American Airlines has become the latest air carrier to slash capacity, sales or routes to Venezuela due to “an unresolved dispute over cash trapped there”.

* U.S.: A new poll released today found that most Cuban-Americans in south Florida, especially younger generations and recent arrivals from Cuba, oppose continuing the U.S. embargo on the Caribbean island.

* Argentina: President Cristina Fernandez said that her country would be unable to comply with a U.S. Supreme Court order to repay billions of dollars to creditors within the next two weeks.

* Colombia: Roughly twenty-four hours after being elected to a second straight term, president Juan Manuel Santos proposed changing the constitution in order to bar presidential reelection.

Video Source – CCTV America via YouTube

Online Sources – Miami Herald; Bloomberg; USA TODAY; Xinhua

Bolivian President Nationalizes Airlines

The Bolivian government declared that all of the country’s privately-run airlines will be nationalized.

Aerocon and Amaszonas, two small air carriers that mostly operate in Bolivia could soon become incorporated into the state-run Boliviana de Aviación.

“I’ve already named an airport after me so why not control the airlines, too?” said President Evo Morales at a press conference on Monday. 

The leader referred to the controversial renaming of the Oruro airport that was originally dedicated to aviation pioneer Juan Mendoza.

The president added that he might “choose a snappy new name for the airline” such as Moralestrellas, which he claimed would be a combination of his name and the Spanish word for stars (estrellas).  But Oruro Mayor Rossio Pimentel claimed that both the nationalization plans and the renaming are “terrible ideas” since Moralestrellas could be translated as “crashing morale.”

Morales has nationalized numerous major industries since taking office in 2006.  One of his most recent nationalizations involved the state takeover of three Spanish-owned airports.  Along with last year’s nationalization of a Spanish-owned electric power company, relations between the Andean state and Spain have been tense and uneasy:

Daily Headlines: July 24, 2009

* Bolivia: The nationalization of the country's oil and gas sectors has been completed according to the interim president of state-owned oil firm YPFB.

* Venezuela: The Venezuelan judge who claimed that she was illegally removed from overseeing the case against the president of Globovision presented her complaint to senior judicial officials.

* U.S.: Why are immigration authorities considering deporting a 13-year-old boy to Guatemala despite his being born in the U.S.?

* Mexico: Officials grounded seven discount airliners for breaking safety codes and not paying government fees on time.

Image- LAHT
Online Sources- Xinhua, LAHT, The Latin Americanist, Houston Chronicle, UPI

Daily Headlines: October 27, 2008

* Latin America: According to the International Air Transport Association air travel worldwide has plummeted except for Latin America carriers.

* Nicaragua: The U.S. Embassy in that country released a statement criticizing President Daniel Ortega and preparations for upcoming local elections.

* Chile: Is Chile really going through a crime wave or does perception not match up with reality?

* U.S.: A pair of Massachusetts factory managers involved in a massive immigration raid last year pled guilty to knowingly hiring undocumented laborers.

Image- Canada.com
Sources- Xinhua, AP, bostonherald.com, Time

Follow-up: Madrid air crash kills 153

More details are gradually emerging from yesterday’s deadly Spanair crash which officially cost the lives of 153 people in Madrid.

Airline officials refused to guess at the cause of the crash; nevertheless, they did admit that a first attempt at takeoff had been scrapped when an indicator showed that “overheated air” entered the aircraft. Yet according to Time, a “source in Spanair” claimed that the problem was fixed; subsequently, flight 5022 crashed after one of the engines allegedly caught fire.

Both black boxes were recovered and will soon be examined by aviation authorities.

Of the 172 passengers on the flight bound for the Canary Islands only 19 survived including three children. Most of the passengers were Spaniards though officials acknowledged eighteen foreigners from eleven countries were onboard.

According to one story in the Spanish press, a passenger on the ill-fitted flight had been refused exit from the plane after the aborted takeoff:

Spanish media said that an unidentified woman at the hotel told reporters that her husband had texted her at 12.30 pm - almost two hours before the accident - saying: "My love, there's a problem with the plane."

She phoned him back and told him to get off the flight, but he said: "They won't let me off."

The woman's son, who was with her at the hotel, said that the cabin crew had told the man to get back in his seat.

Spain’s government has declared three days of mourning in memory of those deceased in the crash. Meanwhile, King Juan Carlos is expected to visit grieving families at Barajas airport while Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is expected to visit those recuperating in hospital.

Image- CBC (“A part of the fuselage of the Spanair jet that crashed on take off at Madrid airport is lifted by a crane on Wednesday. The airliner bound for the Canary Islands at the height of the vacation season crashed, burned and broke into pieces Wednesday while trying to take off from Madrid, killing 153 people on board, officials said. (EFE/Associated Press)”).

Sources- AFP, Voice of America, IHT, BBC News, Time, Guardian UK, Times Online, The Latin Americanist

Spanish radio: 145+ killed in air crash

The latest reports out of Spain said that at least 145 people died when a Spanair MD-82 aircraft broke up and caught fire after skidding off the runway at Madrid's Barajas International Airport.

According to Spanish Development Minister Magdalena Alvarez only 26 people survived the crash of the flight which was destined for the Canary Islands. Alvarez alluded to the crash being caused by “an error in takeoff”, and indeed the aircraft had aborted a previous takeoff attempt where it had been reportedly taken to the maintenance shed.

Assuming that the death toll is accurate, today’s accident would be Spain’s deadliest air accident in twenty years.

The crash occurred hours after Spanair's pilots union blasted parent company SAS for creating “organized chaos” at the airline.

A Spanish government spokesman said that Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was cutting his vacation short and was en route to Madrid. Meanwhile, a passenger onboard another plane landing at Barajas gave his eyewitness account to BBC News:

As we landed and the plane turned off, from my seat I could see smoke coming up from the end of the runway…

There was a small mushroom cloud, as you might expect after an explosion…

The problem was that after the plane crashed, the area around it was engulfed in flames. The firefighters could not get to the plane.

That is why the helicopters came with their water tanks - they were putting out the fire.

There must have been about 80 or 90 ambulances on the scene by the time we got into the terminal.

Image- BBC News (“At least 100 people were killed and dozens injured when a plane with more than 170 people on board skidded off the runway during take-off at Madrid's Barajas airport.”)

Sources- AFP, forbes.com, Press Association, The Telegraph, MarketWatch, BBC News, CNNMoney.com, Reuters

Daily Headlines: March 28, 2008

* Bolivian president Evo Morales apparently wants to help his country’s World Cup aspirations by joining a second-division soccer team.

* Mariela Castro- daughter of the Cuban president- has been active in promoting gay and transsexual rights on the island, according to BBC News.

* Did a British reality TV crew start a flu epidemic that killed four Peruvian natives?

* The chairman of budget airline firm JetBlue said that he will launch a new Brazilian airline next year.

Sources- Associated Press, BBC News, Guardian UK, MSNBC

Image- Foreign Policy Passport